Abstract:

Plant characters that determine stem and root lodging were measured on 15 winter wheat cultivars at three UK sites between 2000 and 2002. A model of lodging was used to estimate stem failure wind speeds (resistance to stem lodging) and anchorage failure wind speeds (resistance to root lodging). The degree and type of natural lodging was also recorded in the plots and this correlated well with the stem and anchorage failure wind speeds. Only a weak correlation (R2=0·33) was observed between the stem and anchorage failure wind speeds for the 15 cultivars. This can be explained by the absence of genetic correlation between the plant characters that determine the stem and anchorage strength. There was a significant interaction between type of lodging (stem or root) and cultivar for failure wind speed (P